The chief US negotiator to the six-party nuclear talks on Tuesday said "no breakthroughs" had been made after the first one-on-one meeting with his counterpart from the North Korea.
 
"We don't have any breakthrough to report," Assistant US Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters Wednesday night at the hotel.

Hill did not release details of his one-on-one meeting with the chief North Korean negotiator Kim Kye-gwan, the first since the talks resumed on Monday.

Hill confirmed he also had one-on-one meetings with the other four delegations.

Formally known as the second phase of the fifth round since 2003, the fresh talks involved China, the North Korea, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan and Russia, with focus on the implementation of the joint statement in September 2005.

Under the joint statement, the North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for economic aid and security guarantees.

"We cannot accept anything less than the goal of denuclearization," Hill said. "I really want to see something get done this week."

"Tomorrow will be a bilateral day," Hill said, adding he will have "an early discussion with the North Korea delegation tomorrow."

On the sidelines of the six-party talks, the United States and the North Korea held a separate meeting on finance issues in Beijing.

President of the North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank O Kwang Chol held three-hour talks with Daniel Glaser, US Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, at the US Embassy on Tuesday afternoon.

(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2006)